The Soul of the City (Thergerim
“Morongetyr”, short for “MorsekOngzetyr” lit. "Dark Heart of the City") is the
common name for the largest black diamond carved out of the Zharkanion Mountain
range, which is the great mountain chain of
Nybelmar.

It is said that the jewel was discovered by
dwarven miners on the same day that
Menemronn, the evil wizard from the east, struck the Nybelmargerim with all
his fury. As the Kormor Toltrumerim – the greatest
dwarven mine of that time – collapsed, the
roof of the tunnel, in which the diamond was discovered, also fell in. It was
locked up under the council-area, in Tyr
Faerath, in a vault with a thick door. It was guarded by soldiers and
locked in with seven locks.

Magic only the
dwarves know of was used to seal the door so that it could only be opened
if several conditions were met: First, that all seven locks were opened at the
same time; second, that the person opening each lock was the rightful owner of
the key he was using; and third, that each person was opening the lock of his
own free will.

The Soul respresents the strength of the
Kiingerim and their city. As long
as they have the stone, Tyr Faerath
will never fall, so the legend tells us.

Appearance.
The stone is one of the most impressive jewels in all of
Caelereth. The
dwarves of old used all their skills to
perfect the stone and it seems flawless to the eye. The Soul of the City has the
shape of an orb and its surface is smooth and the black colour is very deep. Its
size if roughly a palmspan in diameter and it is very heavy for its size
compared with other diamonds.

The few Kiingerim that have had
the pleasure to hold the stone in their hands said that it is "warmer than one
might expect". Some people insist that they can see things moving inside the
orb, much like the Orb of Bluestride. But
this is probably just a trick by the colour that fools the eye.

Usages.
The Kiingerim do not practically
use the Soul of the City, it is more an item of belief and to guarantee comfort
for
Tyr
Faerath.

As the stone is seen as a sign that Tyr Hthom still has faith in the
Kiingerim, the
dwarves will think upon the perfectness of
the stone and find strength. Any dwarf you
meet, with some knowledge of history, will tell you that the stone couldn’t have
been found by anybody else than the
Kiingerim. It is common belief that their god gave their city a Soul with
the stone.

The stone also makes the Kiingerim proud. No one in the known world holds such a
grand black diamond.

When Menemronn finally was defeated, the
elves knew the stones were powerful and
dangerous. When all eight stones were together they were a great pool of power
so the elves took the four Lightstones and hid
them in their Emerald Forest.

The Return of the Stone.
Thousands of years after the end of the
War of the Chosen, the
dwarves heard of the Lightstones of the
Emerald Forest. It were the Ifer’hém
who told the dwarves that their jewel was
among them. The Kiingerim were
once again strong behind a high wall and wanted their god-given stone back. On
the other hand the elves didn’t want the stones
anymore. They had caused many bad things. Even the “good” stones, the
Lightstones were still part of an evil pool of power. Even so, the
elves thought they were the only ones wise
enough to keep them and refused to give it back. The fact that the
elves dislike the dwarves
didn’t help either.

The dwarves answered by cutting off the
traderoutes as a first action. The elves
laughed at that. They could do without the trade to the west. This made the dwarves
angry, and for the first time since the
War of the Chosen, the dwarven
army was ready for war. At this time they didn’t really want to go to war. They
thought the rattle of their axes would make
the elves give in. Still more than 4.000 dwarves
sharpened their weapons.

The Kaýr elves, tired of their civil
war, still refused. They were not scared of the dwarves
and they had yet lost a war in their own forest. So, the dwarven
army started their march to the east toward the Emerald Forest, but the only
battles they fought ware with elven scouts.
When the army reached the forest they were surprised that they could enter
without an elven counter-attack. They marched
as fast as they could towards the nearest
Kaýr city. The elven lords sent archers to
slow them down. And they did slow the dwarves
down, but the Kiingerim army still
kept marching. At this time the Kaýr
gave in and offered peace talks.

At these talks the Kiingerim
assured the Kaýr that they only
wanted the stone to keep it locked in a vault. That made the
elves more calm and the stone was given back to
the dwarven tribe it belonged to.

A myth then sprang to life. If the Soul of the City were again lost for more
than one month the city would be doomed.

The Theft of the Morongetyr. Perhaps the most
fascinating story about the Morongetyr is the one that tells of how it was
stolen. For more than 2.500 years it held its place within the vault. The stone
was considered a myth by many of the common
dwarves. The stone was said to be impossible to steal, as you need the
approval of all seven council members to open the door - that is if you don’t
have powerful magic backing you up.

The fact that it’s so hard to steal has created a saying among the
Kiingerim. “Certain as the
Morongetyr is still in place” means that something is undeniably certain.

This belief was torn by the theft of the stone in 302 b.S. How the thieves did
it is not precisely known, but one day, when the new guards came down to the
vault to relieve the old ones they found the guards dead, the vault opened and
the Soul gone. The shocked guards called for the council and the seven members
immediately convened. No one of them had lost his key and all had good alibis
even though the door had not been broken up and the locks were intact.

Speculation abounded; some wondered whether it was an act of an enemy of city, a
mighty wizard or if Tyr Hthom had lost his trust in them. They all agreed not to
spread the word as that would worry the population too much. The military
leader, the Hthom, was given the order by the council to find the Soul and take
it back. He had one month to complete the task or, according to the myth, the
city would be doomed. Usually a military leader would seize the opportunity to
reinforce his army and start a massive search operation. But Tyrilin Opolin knew
better. He knew that the soldiers would not be able to keep quiet so he turned
to those who always kept quiet: the thieves of the city. He could not approach
them directly, as thieves and militaries rarely like each other, so he got in
touch with his chief of spies. The chief arranged a meeting with the seven
thieves whom he believed to be the best.

The Underground's Mission. Although the crimes
committed in the city were few, thieves still existed; and the thieves of
Tyr Faerath were more civilized and calm
than most thieves. Murder happened only once every ten years. The seven of them
were sent out to find the Soul with the promise that they would be richly
rewarded. They all went in different directions at first.

Thirteen days later the Hthom heard that the first had come back. Apparently he
had given up. He also said he had seen two of the others fall when fighting
Chyrakisth warriors and he had heard
that two more had given up and were now settled in Kormendale. - That left two
to hope for and still the council and the Hthom were the only ones who knew
about the theft.

One of the them returned on the very last day of the month. He was coming from
the east and sand and dust covered him from top to toe. His eyes were damaged
from the bright sun and he limped due to a cut in his
leg. But he had the Morongetyr with him, wrapped up in an old piece of cloth. He
fell to his knees as he entered the Main Gate and had to be carried home by his
friends.

The Soul was taken back to its vault. Then the council spread the word that the
Soul had been lost but that the Searcher Dolo Groilin, son of a thief, had
brought it back. When the council went to the thief’s home to give him his
reward he had died from the infection in his leg. The funeral was the most
impressive in the history of the city.

Every dwarf came to witness the procession as
they took the dead body of Dolo to the vault where he was laid to rest with the
Soul of the City. He was honoured so because he had saved the city at the cost
of his life.

The Aftermath of the Theft. In 302 b.S. after the
recovering of the Morongetyr the
Kiingerim did not look favourably upon their cousins of the plains who had
tried to steal it. The council shut them out of the trade agreements and all
Kavogerim living inside or outside
of the city were considered outlaws. Many
Kavogerim had to move out of the
city and live as refugees. This caused much death among them.

There were also talks among the army, who had friends murdered in the theft, to
declare war on the Plaindwarves.
The reason this was not done was due to the decision of Tyrilin Opolin, the
military leader. He knew of the capacity of the
Kavogerim when it came to warfare
and that the Kiingerim-army was
nothing without their walls. Once again, his wise mind saved the city.

In 301 b.S. a group of twenty
Kavogerim sought a meeting with
the ruling Traders-Council of the city. They were the ten most respected
Mothuttelerons and the ten most respected Denirimerons and they said they spoke
for all of their tribe. Mothuttelerons were Clan Mothers of the
Kavogerim and the leaders of the
different clans. The Denirims were the priests of the tribe.

The Council did not turn them down and a closed meeting was held inside the
council-area in the inner parts of the city. After three days they all came out
and the Council president declared that they had accepted the apologies of the
Kavogerim and that a new trade
agreement was made. In this agreement, the
Kavogerim went down from 1/7 of
all the taxes and tarifs to 1/10. That was a mighty blow to the already poor
tribe, but better 1/10 than nothing.

The Morhuttelerons told the Council that the fifteen
dwarves who stole the stone were renegades
and outlaws. They acted upon their own will, or that of someone else, but not
their Morhuttel. Who had aided them in opening the vault they did not know. One
Mothuttel said “they got what they deserved. We found the bodies in the desert.
Whoever did that was indeed skillful.” (Read the
“Journals” for more
information.)

The
Kavogerim who were recently
considered outlaws were now taken back under the wings of the city and the
Council paid them a nice sum for their suffering.

In 285 b.S. a second meeting between the Council and the leading
Kavogerim was held, this time in a
Holtyr (a small city dug into the desert). At that meeting it was decided to go
back to the old agreement. The
Kavogerim would get 1/7 of the
income from taxes from the caravans in addition to the money that was paid by
the caravan-owners for protection.

They also decided to have these meetings every fifth year. The next would again
be held at Tyr Faerath. The theft
actually made the relationship stronger between the two tribes.

Myth/Lore. The Kiingerimbelieve that their God, Tyr
Hthom, created the jewel as a token of his protection and love for the tribe.They say that he forged the stone under supervision of
the Eternal LordTrum-Baroll in
the forges of Trum Dispor’Baroll, the Realm of the
Lost Father. TyrHthom, the
first Head of the City, is the God
of the Kiingerim
and the protector of the tribe. He is the brother of Hunyeh Hthom, Head of the
Mine that is the protector of
Kavogerim and before that the Toltrumerim. It is said he
ancestors trained with Trum-Baroll
as apprentices.

Tyr Hthom also poured his protection, his love for the
dwarves, into the stone. As he was not a
strong god, his strength would only last as long as the stone would rest inside
the walls of the city. Legends tell us that if taken
outside of those walls the powers would only last one
month. After that the tribe would begin to diminish.

When Menemronn, the dark wizard in the
times of the War of the Chosen,
started his attack on the dwarves,
crushing them inside the towns and mines, he first stole the stone to use it in
his throne.

When Menemronnlater
fell the elves took all the lightstones to the
Emerald Forest. They believed the stone could do good things.
But they were proven wrong. The stones only led
to mistrust, crimes and war.